Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

after the battle, one way or another. All the time in the world. He walked out of the Armoury and into the corridor, and Lord Darius was waiting for him.
    Rupert glimpsed a brief flash of light from Darius' dagger as it sliced through the air towards him, and he threw himself desperately to one side. Darius's blade cut through Rupert's chain-mail as he fell, but somehow just missed his ribs. Rupert hit the floor rolling and was quickly on his feet again sword in hand as Darius came towards him, snarling and muttering to himself.
    The tiny discoloured knife swept back and forth in quick, vicious arcs as Darius pressed forward, and Rupert backed away. He knew poison on a blade when he saw it, and he wasn't about to take any chances. The extra reach of his sword should be enough to keep Darius at bay until the others answered his call.
    Harald and King John appeared at the Armoury doors, and Darius snarled at them. Black dripping balefire flew from his pointing hand. Harald drew Flarebright from its scabbard and was on guard in one swift motion, and the balefire soaked into the great gleaming length of steel and was gone. Darius turned on the King, but he'd already drawn Rockbreaker. Darius stepped back from Rupert, and raised his hands in the stance of summoning. A long jagged crack appeared in the stone floor before him. A dirty blood-red mist boiled up out of the widening crack, followed by a rush of clawed and taloned devils with murder in their glowing eyes. The air was full of the stench of brimstone. Both Harald and the King froze for a moment as deep-buried atavistic terrors ran through them, and then the moment passed, and they leaped forward, roaring their war cries. Flarebright and Rockbreaker gleamed ruddy in the crimson hall light. The devils screamed and mewled as the Infernal Devices cut them down, but ever and always they rose to the attack again, their wounds healed and gone in the blinking of an eye. Harald and the King stood back to back, and fought on.
    Darius turned on Rupert again, and backed him up against a wall, shifting eagerly from foot to foot as he searched for an opening in Rupert's defence. He wanted to kill Rupert with his dagger, if he could. Feel the blade turning in the Prince's flesh. It would be so much more satisfying. Rupert swayed back and forth to match Darius's movements, and searched frantically for some way out of the mess he'd got himself into. There was nowhere left to retreat to, and from the look of things, Harald and the King needed his help desperately. The poisoned dagger cut at him again and again, and Rupert could feel the sweat running down his sides as he struggled to parry every blow. Darius was leaving himself wide open, but Rupert didn't dare relax his guard long enough to make an attack. Even a scratch from that blade might be enough to kill him. On the other hand, he didn't need the growing ache in his arms to tell him he couldn't keep this up for long. Despite the High Warlock's spells, he was a long way from being fully recovered from his wounds, while Darius's strength and fury seemed never-ending. Rupert scowled. He had to do something, while he still had the energy to bring it off.
    Rupert parried yet another blow, and then swung his sword in a flat, vicious arc at Darius's eyes. Darius fell back instinctively, and Rupert threw himself at Darius's waist, groping for Darius's knife hand. They fell to the ground in a tangled heap, and the devils and the crack in the floor vanished in the blinking of an eye, with no trace remaining to show that they had ever been there.
    Rupert and Darius scrambled to their feet. Darius laughed breathlessly, and threw himself at Rupert's throat. Harald cut him out of mid-air with one sweep of Flarebright's massive blade. Blood flew in a wide arc as the impact of the blow threw Darius crashing back against the corridor wall. The huge sword had almost cut him in two, and yet still somehow Darius tried to turn and run. Harald stepped lorward, and ran him through from behind. Darius snarled once, and then slid slowly down the wall, leaving a wide smear of blood on the ancient panelwork.
    Harald tried to pull the blade out of Darius's back, but the sword wouldn't move. A slow red flush crept up the long steel blade as Flarebright nuzzled deeper into the wound it had made. Harald tugged at the sword with both hands and finally, reluctantly, it jerked free. The whole length of the blade had acquired a grim, crimson sheen.
    'Well,'